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Germany Says Facebook's Facial Recognition Is Illegal

Posted by samzenpus on from the pictures-of-you dept.

fysdt writes "Although we think it's generally a pretty nifty feature, valid concerns over the misuse of Facebook's auto-recognition tagging have lead Germany to ban it entirely. That's right — Facebook in its current state is now illegal. The German government, which possesses perhaps the world's most adamant privacy laws as a result of postwar abuse, considers Facebook's facial recognition a violation of 'the right to anonymity.'"

6 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. My right of notbeingrecognized is being recognized by kasnol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Finally someone recognizes the right of "not being recognized without consent".

  2. Just the facial recognition component? by wickerprints · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The whole damn site is a privacy violation. I don't even use FB and I know that there are photos of me floating around on there, tagged by my so-called "friends." Short of being a hermit, I have no way to stop people from uploading data that identifies me to a site that makes money by exploiting that knowledge to sell shit.

    1. Re:Just the facial recognition component? by HellYeahAutomaton · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If they snapped a photo of you while you were walking down the street, deal with it because that is a public space and anyone could have done that.

      The problem here is how people will deal with it:
      a) The native American who doesn't want their soul stolen.
      b) The wanna-be fashion diva who claims you didn't get their release, and you are stealing their IP, livelihood, etc.
      c) Or the guy who just wants to kick your ass because he doesn't want photos around that he didn't consent.

      People in general have a reasonable expectation of privacy everywhere they go despite what all of the social media douchebags think. When you click that photo, you best be sure you know how to defend yourself, because you do not know how people are going to react.

    2. Re:Just the facial recognition component? by Pieroxy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You are missing the point by about a hundred thousand miles. What happens in real life cannot be cross connected and searched on in a fraction of a second. What computers brought to the picture is this ability. Cross the social security database with Facebook and Google databases and you've got a tool that is all dictators wet dreams.

      Of course, nothing more than being recognized in the street. Except it is a lot more.

      In France, we have a state-backed organism that basically prevents any private database from using a key from another database. It also forces companies to delete or update your account if you wish (it's the law that YOU have control over YOUR data even if it's in some companies database.)

      It's a bit harder to build databases. Sure, using the SSN to identify everyone resolves a lot os issues, but that's strictly forbidden. As a result, identity theft is a concept that doesn't exist in France.

      The fact that anyone can recognize you in the street is *not* equivalent to random people tagging you on Facebook.

      --
      Write boring code, not shiny code!
  3. Re:the end of privacy? by hjf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Stop confusing anonymity with privacy.

  4. Re:My right of notbeingrecognized is being recogni by gbjbaanb · · Score: 4, Insightful

    yup, this is Germany.

    Once you realise the first time there was computerised cataloging of individuals, it was used to divvy them up into those who will be sent to the gas chamber and those who would be good blue-eyed blonds. You can understand why this is a big deal and why the law is set as it is. Even facebook doesn't get an opt-out for this.